


Vines of a Rose

by insanegodcuthulu



Category: RWBY, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Gore, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Falling In Love, Mass Murder, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:54:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8347765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insanegodcuthulu/pseuds/insanegodcuthulu
Summary: After a dogfight and weapons mishap over the planet Naboo, Durge finds himself on Remnant, lost, confused, and with no memory of himself or the place he came from. He quickly meets team RWBY and unites with them, on an adventure of self-discovery and war.





	1. How it Begins

# Vines of a Rose.

### How it Begins

###  He sat on the bridge of the ship he was given command of, contemplating the strategy he would be using to fend off the Republic, and their clone army. It was time, Naboo was going to finally fall. He had been given a new ship, a new weapon, and command of the greatest squadron in the confederate armada, nothing was going to stop him now.  
  
“Umm, commander Durge? Sir?” One of the droids asked, vying for his attention.  
  
“Rrrr, what!?” Durge demanded, easily annoyed by the damn droids that the Count had assigned him.  
  
“It seems we’re having trouble with some of the equipment, specifically the new displacement canon.”  
  
“Well, what’s the problem?”  
  
“It seems to be broken, Sir.”  
  
“… Broken how?” The ancient Gen’Dai asked, teeth clenched, trying to stave off the temptation of crushing the battle droid where it stood.  
  
“It’s emitting some weird energy signatures; we’re not sure what adverse effects this could have when we fire it up.”  
  
“Do you think it could still tear apart the Republic’s ships?”  
  
“It should be able to, bu-“  
  
“Then I don’t care, as long as the damn thing works when it’s fired, I don’t give a rat’s ass! Dismissed!” Durge yelled, his lack of patience finally getting the better of him and sent the machine off before he could send it to Robot Hell. “You,” he said pointing to a random droid, “prepare my ship. I’m going to be taking part of this one.”  
  
“Roger, roger.” Was its dull reply. Within the hour Durge’s ship was prepped and ready for the upcoming dogfight over the atmosphere of Naboo. Dropships were already being sent down to the planet’s surface. It wouldn’t be long before the enemy became alerted to their attack, exactly as planned.  
  
“Sir, we’ve got enemy ships inbound to our position.” The commander heard over his com link.  
  
“Perfect.” He hissed out in reply, excited at the prospect for another chance to kill. He was out of the docking bay force fields a mere moment before he had a confirmed visual of six Republic Cruisers. “Engage! Engage! Engage!” He shouted over his microphone.  
  
It was at this moment where all hell broke loose, lasers, explosions, and ship parts started flying everywhere, and at the center of the carnage was Durge, ducking and weaving through the dogfight avoiding blaster fire and annihilating the smaller ships. He was having a good time. However, the Separatist forces were easily outnumbered two to one, their entire operation was just a test fire of their newest W.M.D., the Rapture Warp Wave, a displacement canon capable of taking small sections of a ship, or the whole thing, and sending it a short distance away. It was a prototype, and an incredibly shoddy one at that, teleportation technology had rarely ever been thought about before for any purposes, and now it was being used to literally tear ships in half. Durge wasn’t confident that the testing would be successful, but if it was, it would turn the tide of the war immensely, capable of taking small settlements and transporting them out of the planet’s atmosphere, effectively killing everyone in it, or just ripping through an enemy’s defenses instantaneously either by teleporting ships into a flanking position, or by manipulating the enemy’s own vessels.  
  
“Child of War, do you read me?” Durge asked over the radio.  
  
“We read you general, what are your orders?” was the robotic reply from the ship carrying Durge’s newest plaything.  
  
“I think it’s time we give them a test of our newest… toy.”  
  
“What will our target be?”  
  
“Hmmm, aim for the one on the far right.”  
  
“Um, your right or ours?”  
  
“Does it matter!?”  
  
“Right, right sorry! What are we going to do with it?”  
  
“Crash it into the one closest to you.”  
  
“Roger, roger.” The call was hung up. Durge could see a hatch open in the side of the Child of War, the barrel of the Rapture Warp Wave, sliding out as the dreadnaught maneuvered itself to take aim. When it fired, all combat stopped, no one made a move except for the Child of War as it got a bead on its next target, when it fired a second time, it wound up sending the two cruisers on a collision course that neither had time to escape. The crash happened in the span of three seconds, when the impact occurred the remaining ships all focused their fire on the new weapon. Durge heard a call come in from the ship under fire.  
  
“Commander, Commander, we’re taking heavy fire and the canon might be damaged!” The droid captain screamed into his ear.  
  
“Protect the Rapture Warp Wave at all costs, do not let it be destroyed! When you get the opportunity, fire upon one of the least damaged ships!” The Gen’dai commander ordered, jumping back into the action, protecting the Providence-class dreadnoughts from the smaller ships.  
  
“We’ll try.” Was his only reply.  
  
“Great,” Durge thought, “this whole mission could turn into a huge clusterfuck and I’m going to be the one taking the rap for it, Goddamnit.” He sighed before adding another ARC-170 to his kill count. It was roughly 30 minutes later, twice as long as the normal wait time, when the Child of War reported back saying that they were almost ready to fire again.  
  
“What took so damn long!?” Durge demanded.  
  
“We said we’re under heavy fire!” Was the captain’s reply.  
  
“Fire at will!” Durge shouted as he hung up. “Damn, mouthy ass droid, it survives this I’m going to cave its fucking head in.” He growled before looking up, out the window of his ship, “Huh?” evidently the republic had seen the cannon charging up, and sent out a small squad of Y-wings armed with torpedoes to bomb the cannon’s barrel. “Oh no you don’t.” Durge thought as he sped after them. Their motion trackers must have seen him because four of them started breaking off to hold him back while three others went on. Durge flipped his ship so the belly of his and another barely grazed each other, causing sparks to fly from the grinding metal. He curved his ship up and righted himself behind the Y-wing, before a single laser blast took out the back middle of the fighter at near point-blank range causing severe damage to the two thrusters on either side, and making it explode. Durge laughed as he noticed two more flanking him from both sides, he dived just as they began firing, causing them to shatter their cockpit windows. Durge tried to ditch the last one, and head for the other three, but he proved to be both more annoying, and harder to kill than his brothers, dodging laser fire and nearly scoring several hits on Durge. “You’re pissing me off!” he said as he finally got a bead on the wily clone, “Fuck off and die!” he shouted as he pressed the triggers to fire, destroying yet another clone ship.  
  
___  
  
The three Y-wings were closing in on the Dreadnaught when a blip showed up on their motion tracker, their new tail sending them a message.  
  
“Did you really think that would hold me for long?” The clones heard over their ships’ coms centers.  
  
“Not really, Commander. But we did figure they’d keep you busy for just long enough, and we were right.” The head clone said, the smirk evident in his voice.  
  
“Yeah, you kind of messed up by taking too long, we have this whole plan that has us blowing up your entire space ship.” Was the reply of the one on the right.  
  
“Well then I’d better put an end to that little plan, now shouldn’t I?” Durge responded.  
  
“Or you could just surrender, come with us and go to prison, nice and easy. Who knows, maybe you’ll be let out early ‘cause of good behavior! BWAHAHAHA!” The left rear mocked, before he and his craft were reduced to space scrap.  
  
“HOLY FUCK, TUCKER! Caboose, take evasive action!” The leader shouted.  
  
“Copy that Church!” Was the newly named Caboose’s reply, as they began ducking, zig-zagging, and barrel-rolling like idiots.  
  
“Hold still, Goddamnit.”  
  
“No thanks, I’d rather not end up like Tucker.”  
  
“Caboose! Too soon!”  
  
“You’re fucking idiots, you know that?!”  
  
“Yes!”  
  
“Caboose, shut up! Just shut the fuck up, and keep him off me while I prep the bomb!”  
  
“Okay!”  
  
“GRRAHHHH” Durge was effectively pissed and attempted to fire on Church’s Y-wing, only for Caboose to swoop in and take the hits to the underside of his own ship after having his astromech boost the shields on it.  
  
“Bomb’s prepped, firing now!” Church said as he flew to the still charging cannon.  
  
“FUUUUCK!” Durge shouted, a feeling of defeat and rage bubbling throughout his body as the torpedo was launched into the glowing barrel. He fired on Church’s engines nicking them just enough to send him on a collision course with the ship.  
  
“Ain’t that a bitch?” Was all Durge and Caboose heard, before Church impacted and exploded, against the hull of the ship. Caboose took advantage of his new positioning and fired on Durge’s vessel, causing it to stall, right in front of the barrel, before flipping around and speeding off to the Republic’s rendezvous point. The torpedo did do some damage to the Rapture Warp Wave, but it didn’t prevent it from firing.  
  
“Aw fuck...” Durge said as the beam hit him, and he disappeared. The moment he was gone the entire ship ruptured, the explosion taking out the other Dreadnaughts with it. The Republic had won the battle.  
  
___  
  
“…Me.” All Durge saw was a flash of light and then he was in the gravitational pull of some planet he’d never seen before, all systems failing and red flashing lights and alarms blaring in his ears. He attempted to wrestle with the unresponsive controls, but they weren’t doing anything. He tapped away at some holographic panels trying to at least get the shields up before he could crash into an ever growing expanse of lush, green forest. As the forest drew ever closer Durge began to make out nearby settlements, “Perhaps I can find some help from the locals when I crawl out of this.” he thought. It was then, a fourth of the way to the planet’s surface, that severe turbulence hit, the jostling of the ship throwing Durge’s heavy form around the cockpit like a paper airplane in a hurricane. Durge’s restraints had ripped off and he was tossed backwards. As the wall behind his head drew closer and closer, as if in slow motion, Durge thought, “Son of a bitch.” And everything went black.  
  
___  
  
Ozpin was standing on the top of the cliff he had thrown this year’s Beacon student hopefuls off of nearly an hour ago, watching as the recently decapitated carcass of a massive pitch black bird, a Nevermore, fell into a ravine. He smirked at the leadership shown by two of the new students Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose. But as soon as the smirk appeared it turned into a frown of confusion as the sound of a huge explosion ripped through the air around the Emerald Forest causing mass panic among the animals and even the creatures of Grimm. A massive fireball was hurtling towards the ground letting the professor know exactly what had caused the noise. He could see on the tablet in his hand that it had landed a relatively short distance behind the Nevermore’s killer. Fortunately, he had already made up the teams in his mind, so he could send one to investigate as their first unofficial mission. He held out his hand signaling to his assistant, Glynda Goodwitch, to hand him a large megaphone they had invested in a few years prior, for a similar occasion. He and Glynda pulled out earplugs.  
  
“Would Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, please go and investigate whatever it was that just crashed near your location!?” He asked his voice echoing all around the expansive forest, reaching the eight teenagers near the other cliff.  
  
___  
  
The latter three of the four girls called out by Ozpin looked at each other and shrugged.  
  
“Why do you think, He told us to go do it?” Weiss asked using a glyph to help her teammates and herself up the cliff face.  
  
“Dunno, but I hope that we don’t find much, I’m tired and just want to go to bed.” Yang complained, already dreading what could be awaiting them.  
  
“Well, we might as well quit complaining and go check it out, the sooner we do that, the sooner we can get back.” Blake stated.  
  
“True.” Yang agreed, as they reached the top of the cliff, Weiss’ glyphs making it significantly easier to scale the rocky terrain.  
  
“What do you think that was?” Ruby asked as her friends met her.  
  
“It could have been a weapon test by the Vale military, though I think Ozpin’s going to have a few words with them for it because it landed so close to Beacon.” Blake said, walking past her slightly, stopping, and spinning on her heel.  
  
“Could have been another failed space flight test. I think Mistral still has a program running for it.”  
  
“Oh! It could be an alien, come to steal all of Remnant’s cookies from you, Ruby! Haha!” Yang, Ruby’s half-sister teased, talking in a mock-spooky tone.  
  
“Yang,” Ruby whined, “Stop trying to tease me!” The group of four started off, taking only 15 minutes to reach the crash site.  
  
“Jesus.” Yang said as they stepped into the recently made clearing, “Look at what that thing did!”  
  
“Spread out and search the area, see if you can find anything that might be worth reporting.” Weiss told the group.  
  
“Gotcha.” The other three replied in sync starting their search.  
  
Not long after they broke, Ruby called everyone over to have a look at something she found.  
  
“Your theory might have a little more merit than you gave it, Yang.” She said, “Look at this.” All three girls gasped at what they saw, there in the largest part of the wreckage was the body of a massive, oddly shaped man. His neck extended at least a foot off of his shoulders, and his, or maybe it was a her, chest was inhumanly large.  
  
“Jesus Christ is it alive?” Yang asked, dumbfounded at what she was seeing.  
  
“I don’t know,” Her sister replied, “I can’t tell ‘cause of the armor.”  
  
“Did you try taking it off?” Weiss questioned, clearly doubting that Ruby did.  
  
“Yes, I tried taking the armor off. No, I didn’t succeed. You wanna give it a go?” She questioned.  
  
“No thanks.” Was Weiss’ sarcastic reply. Blake approached the downed figure.  
  
“Alright, let me see if I can cut it off.” She said as she drew her gun/katana from its sheath. She knelt down next to the figures neck and slowly and carefully placed the blade against the area, she applied some pressure and slowly slid the blade across the neck. When that didn’t work, she applied more pressure. “Ugh, it’s no use it’s either a robot, or his armor is just too thick, I was only able to make a decent sized scratch, not enough to remove the helmet.”  
  
“Let me try, maybe the recoil from Crescent Rose would be enough to break it open.” Ruby said.  
  
“That could possibly work, but you’d have to be really, exceptionally, careful. If you’re not, you could accidentally slit his throat.” Blake responded. Before Ruby could say anything they all heard a deep, male groan. “Uuuuugh.”  
  
___  
  
“Well that answers two questions.” A yellow blur said half-jokingly. He sat up, holding his head in his hands.  
  
“Where am I?” He asked, “Who’re you people?”  
  
“Well, I’m Ruby Rose, this is my sister...” A small black and red thing said gesturing to the yellow one at the end of her sentence.  
  
“Yang Xiao Long, nice to meet you.” The yellow one finished.  
  
“I’m Blake Belladonna.” A black and white blur said, drawing his attention.  
  
“I suppose I’ll introduce myself, then. I’m Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, I’m surprised you haven’t already heard of me.”  
  
“Who’re you?” The red one asked again, everything was slowly coming into focus for him, sounds were no longer muffled, images were becoming clearer.  
  
“What?” He asked, having missed her question.  
  
“I asked who you were.” She small girl said. He stood up, his full tenish-foot armored form towering over them. The Yellow one, Yang, whistled.  
  
“Damn you’re big.”  
  
“Am I big, or are you just small?”  
  
“Excuse me!?” She asked having clearly taken offence, sure she wasn’t the tallest girl around, but it wasn’t often that someone had the balls to call her short.  
  
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember. Am I above average height, or are you below average?  
  
“I’m a little below average, but you’re still huge.”  
  
“Sorry didn’t mean to offend.”  
  
“Hey, are you all right? What is your name?” Ruby asked again.  
  
“Right, right, sorry my name is, umm… m-my name is.” He was holding his head again, the girls all looked at each other. “My name… is… I-I can’t remember.” He said a terrified tone taking refuge in his voice.


	2. Starting in a New World

# Vines of a Rose Ch. 2

### Starting in a New World

###  “My name,” he mumbled, clutching his head in his hands, “What is… my name? Where did I come from?! Who the hell am I?!” he was growing weak; the still pretty blurry world was spinning around him.  
  
“Woah there, big guy. Take it easy.” Yang said softly, placing a gentle hand on his arm, urging him to sit down.  
  
Once he was down Weiss spoke, “Okay, now try to think, but don’t overdo it. Try to remain calm, and tell us what you can about yourself.”  
  
“I-I don’t remember anything; I think I might’ve I hit my head. Ugh it hurts to think!” He whimpered out.  
  
“Do you think you might have some kind of identification somewhere?” Yang questioned.  
  
“Maybe you had your name engraved on your armor somewhere?” Ruby asked.  
  
“I don’t have an I.D.” he spoke checking anywhere he could hide one. “But I don’t know about armor engraving.”  
  
“What about, ‘Durge,’ does that sound familiar?” Blake said spying the possible missing name on the back of his helmet.  
  
“Durge,” he spoke as if testing the word, “Durge? Durge! Yeah that’s it! My name, it’s Durge!” He said with as much glee in his voice as a child’s on Christmas.  
  
“Well that’s one more mystery solved about our strange new acquaintance.” Weiss said, mildly amused by the child-like happiness in the colossus that sat before her group.  
  
“Hey, you think you can you walk?” Yang asked.  
  
“I dunno everything’s still kinda fuzzy, I can’t quite see you girls yet, just the basic colors of your outfits. And the worlds kind of… wobbly. I’ll try though.” Durge attempted to stand as he finished speaking, only to fall face first. “Aaaaaand there’s the ground.” He said causing Ruby to giggle at the way Durge was acting, it was kind of like her Uncle Qrow when he would sometimes arrive for a visit, piss-drunk.  
  
“Ruby, Weiss you grab him by his forearms, Blake and I’ll try to lift more towards his torso. Let’s see if we can’t get him back to Beacon.” Yang instructed.  
  
“Got’cha.” Ruby and Weiss said simultaneously before situating his arms across their shoulders.  
  
“Okay,” Yang said to Blake, “On three. One, two Thrrrrreeeah!” She finished, the strain making itself evident in her voice. “Holy damn you’re heavy.”  
  
“Sorry.” He said sincerely.  
  
“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t get used to this, this is a one-time taxi service, buddy.” She said as he passed-out and they started to drag him to the rendezvous point.  
  
“… Ozpin did say we were getting extended time for this part, right?” Weiss asked. “Humph, he better have, or else I’ll kick his ass myself, when we get back.” Yang threatened. The rest of their journey went by mostly silently, other than the groans and complaints of the wannabe huntresses.  
  
___  
  
“So, I take it your search was… successful.” Ozpin asked sitting comfortably in his chair, Glynda flanking him on the right, whilst the four girls he had tasked with searching the crash site were flopped in front of him on the four chairs he had set up in his office, bottles of water in various drained states in their hands, and the body of the supposed “man” they’d found laid behind them.  
  
“No,” Yang bit off sarcastically after finishing her drink, “We’d just found this heavy as hell man shaped carpet on our way back and thought, ’Ya know what, this’d look great in old Oz’s office, we’d better drag the big bastard a friggin’ mile to see if he’d like it.’ Of course we found something!”  
  
“Young lady I’ll have you know that speaking to the Headmaster in such a way will not-” Glynda said before being cut short.  
  
“It’s quite alright Glynda, I’ll allow it this time, just look at what they had to carry,” he said gesturing to Durge’s hulking form, sprawled out across the floor, “That would’ve put a strain on almost anyone, so I can understand Miss Xiao Long being a bit upset with me at the moment, for making them drag him so far. I am sorry.” He said, the last part being directed at the group in front of him.  
  
“Apology… accepted.” Ruby said taking deep gulps of breath.  
  
“Glynda could you do us all a favor and show these four to someplace where they can rest up, while I ask our new guest a few questions, then perhaps we can all head down to the team assignment assembly together.”  
  
“Yes professor. Come on, girls let’s leave Ozpin and your new friend to talk.”  
  
“Imma sleep ‘til next Tuesday.” Yang said as the five stumbled into the elevator, the doors closed and the elevator dropped.  
  
“All right,” Ozpin said walking up to the knocked-out body of Durge, “let’s see who you really are.” As he reached down to remove the helmet, a large hand shot out and gripped his arm firmly.  
  
“If you’ve got questions, ask, but the helmet stays on.” Durge said pushing himself off the floor into a standing position. Now that his vision had fully cleared he could appreciate the view from the office windows. He turned to where the professor was. He almost appeared to be an elderly man at a passing glance, but a closer inspection revealed Ozpin to be much younger than his hair had let on, standing at six-foot six, dressed in a sharp dark green suit, slacks, and dress shoes. He had glasses on his face, a cane in one hand and a mug of something, Durge assumed coffee, in the other.  
  
“Well that just adds more to my already extensive list of questions.” Ozpin said.  
  
“Then we’d best get started. You first then I?” Durge asked.  
  
“Sure. Who are you?”  
  
“Name’s Durge, past that I don’t know. Where am I?”  
  
“The Kingdom of Vale. Where did you come from?”  
  
“Dunno. Woke up to those four girls standing over me, ‘fore that nothing. What is this place?”  
  
“This is Beacon Academy, we train Huntsman and Huntresses to fight and kill the creatures of Grimm. Why won’t you remove the mask?”  
  
“Because I feel as though I should be the first one to see my face, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that. What’s a Grimm?”  
  
“Grimm are pitch black soulless beasts, with white bone-like armored exoskeletal plating, and red glowing eyes, they feed on negative emotions, and their only need or desire is to destroy every person and man-made structure in existence.” Ozpin explained, “What are you?”  
  
“I… cannot answer that, I don’t remember, but I know I’m not human like you. How do you know the Grimm are soulless?”  
  
“Because they do not produce an Aura like Humans and Faunus do, an Aura is like a personal shield, or energy field, produced from our soul, they create an invisible energy shield, allow us to heal small wounds, and fuel our Semblances, which is a special power that bases itself off of who we are and grows as we do. What are your intentions now that you’re here?”  
  
“I don’t know, perhaps I could join your school?” Durge said hoping that, both Ozpin would say yes and that joining would help him uncover more about who he was.  
  
“Perhaps.” Ozpin said, not giving a definitive answer.  
  
“I was also wondering, what’s a Faunus?”  
  
“A Faunus is basically a human with animalistic features, they’ve been through a lot of hardships over the years. One last question from me, how could you tell I was reaching for you? You were out like a light.” Ozpin questioned.  
  
Durge pointed to Ozpin’s chest, “Your heartbeat, I can feel it, it woke me up.”  
  
“You can feel my heart beat?”  
  
“Yes and up until a half second ago I could feel the girls’ as well.”  
  
“I guess I lied earlier, now here is my last question, how do you feel about fighting monsters?”  
  
Durge smiled under his mask, “Bitchin’!”  
  
“Good, here’s a scroll and a map of the Beacon facilities, I’d suggest you take a tour after the assembly and end it at the dorm room written on it. Any further questions?”  
  
“Two quick things, Sir. Where are the men’s and women’s restrooms?”  
  
“You see the locker room right, it’s in there.”  
  
“A unisex shower room in a school full of hormonal teenagers? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Durge asked already questioning his choice of wanting to join.  
  
“Meh, we haven’t had an incident yet, and I don’t expect us to anytime soon.” Ozpin explained, “And, the other thing you wanted to ask?  
  
“What’s a scroll?” Durge asked, confused.  
  
“It’s a device that allows you to get into your dorm, monitor Aura levels for you and your teammates, and it also lets you communicate through text, video, or, simple auditory messages. Is that all?” Ozpin sighed, teaching this guy about all the things on remnant was going to be very exhausting.  
  
“Yep.”  
  
“Good, now go collect the girls who brought you here, and head off to the amphitheater we’ll begin once you’re there.”  
  
“Yes Sir!”  
  
___  
  
“Look, all I’m sayin’ is, your discussion with Ozpin didn’t go nearly long enough. We were expecting to get a bit of a nap in before we had to get to the ceremony.” Yang complained as she and the four girls dragged their feet to the amphitheater.  
  
“Oh is that what you were hoping for, I am so sorry. I’ll try to remember that so the next time I have amnesia I won’t forget the important things that someone might want to know, so that way you can get some sleep.” Durge sounded sincere but it was obvious he was being sarcastic. He was still kind of frustrated about the whole situation he was in.  
  
“Guys,” The youngest of the group complained, “Stop fighting and let’s just go get our teams assigned to us.”  
  
“She’s right, complaining gets us nowhere.” Weiss agreed, “Ugh, we won’t make it if we keep up this pace!”  
  
“Ozpin said they’d be waiting for us.” Durge said.  
  
“Still, do you want the entire school to be on our case if we’re late?” Blake asked.  
  
“Valid point.” Durge said. After a minute he spoke again. “Alright, please keep your hands, feet, and other things you don’t wanna lose, inside the ride at all times!” Durge instructed picking up the four girls, balancing Weiss and Ruby on his shoulders while carrying Blake and Yang under his arms.  
  
“W-WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?” Weiss screamed.  
  
“Getting us to the team placement.” He said.  
  
“WOO HOOHOHOOO!” Ruby cheered as they sped away at a surprisingly fast pace given his size, though not as fast as she was used to. They only got a few seconds to enjoy the ride though, unbeknownst to all, Remnant had a lower gravity that what Durge’s body was used to. It became apparent to Ruby that something was wrong when Durge didn’t start to slow down where she would have to, to avoid crashing. She quickly grabbed Yang, got Weiss’ attention and jumped off the runaway behemoth a moment later Weiss joined her holding Blake by the back of her collar. The four watch as Durge tried to slow himself in vain and crash headfirst into the amphitheater wall, which gave way a half second later.  
  
“Okay, that hurt.” The-Destroyer-of-Walls said as he crawled out of the small pile of rubble.  
  
“What was that!? You could have injured us or worse!” Weiss yelled.  
  
“Sorry. This place feels… weird.” Durge said.  
  
“It feels weird, so you run headfirst into a wall?” Weiss asked disbelievingly.  
  
“No I mean it feels like I’m used to more resistance when moving.” He elaborated.  
  
“Well in any case, we’re here, so thanks for the ride.” The black clad girl said as she and the others walked through the hole he made into the assembly. As they approached the stage the girls heard a familiar voice call out to them and a small pink thing, that Durge didn’t recognize, bounded over to them.  
  
“Heyo, you guys made it just in time, they’re about to start assigning teams!” it said excitedly.  
  
“Hey Nora. Where are the other three? I figured at least Ren would be with you.” Yang asked.  
  
“Oh they’re around somewhere.” A voice said behind Durge causing all, but him, to jump.  
  
“Hey there Ren how-,” Ruby said only to be cutoff by a voice from the stage.  
  
“Quiet down now students,” Glynda spoke to the mass of students, “Professor Ozpin will begin naming off the teams. Professor?”  
  
“Thank you Glynda. First off I would like to congratulate this year’s newest additions to Beacon academy.” The crowd applauded. “Now let’s get the teams together. Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. You four retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work as… Team CRDL (Cardnial). Lead by… Cardin Winchester.” The crowd applauded as they walked off the stage. “Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work as… Team JNPR (Juniper). Lead by… Jaune Arc!”  
  
“Huh? L-Lead by…?” was Jaune’s confused reply.  
  
“Congratulations, young man.” Ozpin said as Pyrrha playfully punched his arm, sending him to the floor causing the audience to laugh. “And Finally,” Ozpin continued, “An uncommon thing to find in huntsman teams, and an entirely new concept at Beacon. Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yan Xiao Long. And, our newest addition, Durge. You first four retrieved the white knight pieces, and saved Durge’s life. From this day forward you all will make up Beacon’s first five-man team… Team DWRBY (Derby). Lead by… Ruby Rose.” The crowd applauded one last time.  
  
“I’m so proud of you!” Yang said as she pulled Ruby into a bear hug.  
  
“Looks like things are shaping up to be an… interesting year.” Ozpin said as everyone filed out of the room.  
  
“So, what are we going to do about Durge’s transcripts?” Glynda asked, referring to the fact that Durge was still an unofficial Huntsman.  
  
“I want the VPD, staff, and anyone else who needs to know informed, keep all the other schools out of it, especially Atlas and Ironwood.”  
  
“Should I tell Qrow and Taiyang? After all he is going to be spending a lot of time around Ruby and Yang.”  
  
“Yes, tell them too. Make sure there are no digital or physical copies ever made for him. If he has a problem, either you fix it or you come to me, he might just be our trump card against The Queen, though perhaps not as much as Ms. Rose.”  
  
___  
  
The group of five stood at the doorway to the room looking in. The room was well furnished with all the amenities that they could need, except for one problem.  
  
“Oh no! They only gave us four beds!” Ruby cried.  
  
“Someone’s going to have to take the floor.” Weiss said.  
  
“Shall we put it to a vote?” Blake asked.  
  
“Well, Ruby and I shared a room back home, I guess we could take the same bed.” Right as Yang finished speaking they all saw Durge waltz into the room, get down on all fours in the middle of the room, flop over with an audible wump, and fall right to sleep, his head resting on his arm.  
  
“I guess that solves that problem.” Ruby said crawling into the bed she claimed for herself. “G’night everyone.” She said in the middle of a yawn and they all fell asleep.  
  
___  
  
Roman Torchwick stood in the warehouse looking at a map he’d drawn up of the Kingdom of Vale. He was waiting for a White Fang member to come by with his sample of the “goods” he was promised. When he arrived Torchwick handed him a small stack of lien cards and instructed him to open it. When he peered inside he saw exactly what he was promised, Dust crystals, all shapes, sizes, and types. “We’re gonna need more men.” He said picking up an ice crystal.


	3. First Day of School pt.1

# Vines of a Rose. Ch.3

### First Day of School pt.1

###  It was dawn, the sun was just beginning to break over the horizon, and the birds begun to sing their sweet morning songs. It was five A.M. and Ruby was just beginning to wake, a habit she’d developed for a comedy show she’d accidentally woken up early to find on at the early morning hour, the show ended but the habit remained. She’d wandered around, half asleep but still mindful of the room’s other, sleeping, occupants, getting herself ready for the day that would soon start. She gathered up her stuff and headed to the communal showering room, she’d heard a rumor that the dorms would be getting their own bath rooms and kitchenettes. How she longed for that day to come so she wouldn’t have to wander around in the early morning so nobody would see her.  
  
She’d showered, dressed, brushed her teeth, combed through her hair, and wandered back to the dorm room to wait and silently play a game on her scroll. But when she arrived she noticed something in her more awake state, that she didn’t before, someone was missing. The big guy they saved the night before, was gone. But where could he have gone? “Oh no,” She thought, “I hope somebody didn’t kidnap him in the middle of the night! He was an alien… I think, and I’m pretty sure an alien would fetch a good price to, well, somebody!” She was panicked, one of the team members was missing, possibly kidnaped, possibly being tortured, or killed, or experimented on! Should she wake her team? They had a pretty long night and it was early, but somebody was missing!  
  
Just when she was about to wake the rest of the team, Ruby heard the door quietly squeak open behind her. There, in the doorway, was Durge, his colossal form having to duck under the doorway to get into the room. “Where have you been?” She quietly questioned. “I’ve been worried sick! You could’ve been kidnapped, or worse!”  
  
“Ruby,” Durge said calmly, “say the word with me, ‘Relax.’ I’m fine. I’ll be fine, I was just doing some work to make sure nobody gets any bright ideas about the crash site.”  
  
“What did you do?” Ruby asked a mass of possibilities already on her mind, ranging from murder, to finding a teddy bear. Hey this was most likely an alien, anything’s possible.  
  
“I was burying some of the surviving equipment and hull armor, the only things left of the crash are ash and a big crater, everything else has been hidden all around campus and the nearby forest so that nobody finds them.” Durge explained, he’d seen the remains of the crash as well as some of the tech Remnant had, his equipment was a fair bit more advanced, and he didn’t want anyone stealing it if he needed it.  
  
“Wait you buried the whole crash in one night? That is awesome! Your species must have super speed or something!” Ruby declared, excitable as ever, thinking of an entire race of hers.  
  
“I don’t think we have super speed.”  
  
“Well you did reach near me speeds not two hours of crashing from outer space.”  
  
“…Um okay.” He said, confused, the hell did she have to do with anything?  
  
“I have super speed.” She elaborated at his questioning tone.  
  
“Ah, semblance?”  
  
“Semblance.”  
  
“…So, are we gonna wake them up or…?” Durge inquired, gesturing to the still sleeping bodies of Weiss, Blake, and Yang.  
  
“At five in the morning? Yang’ll kill us, bring us back to life, just to kill us again. And I get the feeling Weiss will do worse.” Ruby explained a bit too calmly for Durge’s liking.  
  
“We’re not doing that, then. Sooo what’re we gonna do?” He asked, hoping that she didn’t just plan to wait around for them to wake up.  
  
“I think the student lounge has a TV, we could go watch cartoons.” She said, hoping he wouldn’t think of her like a child for wanting to watch “kiddie shows.”  
  
“Bitchin’.” he spoke making her smile. “I’ll go grab you some cereal, or, something.”  
  
“Cereal would be fine, oh especially if they have Pumpkin Pete’s.” It wasn’t her favorite but she had a craving.  
  
“What does that even look like?” he asked as he opened the door and they stepped out into the hall.  
  
“Orange box with Pyrrha on the cover, says “Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes.” She explained as they began to move towards the lounge.  
  
“Okay, now second question, what the hell is a Pyrrha?” He asked extremely confused.  
  
“Pyrrha Nikos? The star athlete? Four-time Mistral Regional Tournament winner? How do you not know this? Everyone knows this, well, except for Jaune.” She said incredulously. He opened the door to the lounge for her and went to the cupboards to see if they had anything remotely useable for cereal.  
  
“And now your recalling that I’m an amnesiac alien.” Durge pointed out grabbing the cereal, bowls, milk from the minifridge, and spoons.  
  
“Oh shoot, sorry.” Ruby said, blushing out of obvious embarrassment.  
  
“Well I can’t really blame ya, I don’t think this particular situation has ever happened before.” Durge caught sight of the short, blushing girl and could help but briefly think of how adorable she looked.  
  
“Well,” Ruby started sitting on the couch in the lounge, “there is this movie where an iron giant came to Remnant, he had this big dent in his head that caused him not to remember what he was or why he was there, I might have to show you that movie at some point, it’s awesome.” Ruby said recalling how similar these two situations were. He handed her the bowl and prepared to sit down before thinking better of it, his armor was heavy after all.  
  
“Well we do have a few hours to waste until the rest of the team, and by extension Beacon, wakes up…. Or maybe not.” He said before holding up five fingers and slowly ticking them off every two seconds.  
  
“What’re you doing?” Ruby asked as she saw him.  
  
“Just give it a moment.” He answered, still counting down.  
  
“And just WHAT on God’s green earth do you two think you’re doing!?” Glynda shouted as she barged into the room, seeing Ruby prepped for the day in her uniform and Durge in his armor.  
  
“Well for one we were gonna watch… umm what was it called again Ruby?” Durge said not really caring about Glynda clearly being pissed.  
  
“The Iron Giant.” She filled in.  
  
“We were gonna watch The Iron Giant, before you came in here screaming. Thanks by the way I don’t think the fourth years, four floors up, heard you.” Durge said. “Besides, it’s not like there’s a curfew or anything, we didn’t do anything wrong.”  
  
“Still, why are you up at this hour?”  
  
“Well I always get up at this hour and Durge…” Ruby said hoping he’d have his own cover story, because she was a terrible liar.  
  
“Was taking inventory of your secret whisky stash. By the way you’re out a bottle of strawberry Schnapps.” Durge said.  
  
“Wha- how did yo- Auuugh!” Glynda screamed and ran back to her room to check her stash.  
  
“Hehe I lied. I had no clue she had Schnapps hidden in her room.” Durge was grinning like mad under the helmet he wore.  
  
“But why lie?” Ruby said digging into her breakfast.  
  
“I don’t want her snooping around for my equipment.” Durge clarified.  
  
“Ohh, makes sense.” Ruby said.  
  
“So, we watching that movie, or what?” Durge inquired, walking around to lean ever so slightly on the back left of the couch.  
  
“Mmmf.” Ruby remembered the movie midbite. “It’s in my suitcase in the dorm, I didn’t bring much. Can you go grab it? It’ll have the silhouette of a big robot with yellow glowing eyes, standing by artillery equipment, staring at a small boy in his hand.”  
  
“Roger!” Durge said waltzing out of the room. “Why do I feel so angry all of a sudden?” He shrugged. The walk from the lounge to the dorm was short, it took a few seconds to determine which suitcase was hers and a few more to find the movie and then he started back. Then watching the movie took nearly an hour and a half with Durge nearly crying at the “Superman” part, while Ruby openly wept.  
  
“Well whaddya wanna do now?” Ruby asked as she whipped her sleeve across her eyes.  
  
“We could always wake up the team?” He offered.  
  
“At six thirty in the morning?” She wasn’t too keen on the idea of disrupting their slumber now either, especially after yesterday.  
  
“Well the earlier they wake up the more things we can get done ‘fore class starts, like dressing, eating, unpacking, class organization, and perhaps a little get-to-know-one-another type activity.” He said. Ruby had to admit he made a good point, they could get everything done now rather than later when they’d all be tired from classes and wouldn’t want to do anything.  
  
“Fair point, c’mon let’s go wake up the troops.” She said taking up a humorously over exaggerated march back to the dorm.  
  
A few moments later found our unwitting hero and heroine standing before their sleeping compatriots, trying to decide how to rouse them. “We could always just shake them awake.” Durge said.  
  
“Shaking Yang awake is a pretty quick way to land yourself in the hospital if you’re not careful.” Ruby reminded.  
  
“You got any other Ideas, that won’t seem too rude?”  
  
“Well other than a whistle, no.” She slumped, no polite options were available to them.  
  
“Well then whistle it is. Let ‘er rip, Ruby.” He said, not wanting to be the dick of the group.  
  
“Me? Why don’t you do it!?” She wasn’t too pleased that he was making her do this.  
  
“Uh you’ve already had a first impression with the team, they haven’t really met me yet so I’m not gonna make them think I’m an asshole when I’m really not.”  
  
“…….. Fine.” She relented taking a deep breath before blowing into the whistle making it let out a high pitch screech that had nearly everyone up and ready.  
  
“AHHHH FUCKERCOCKSHIT! ROSE!? WHAT THE HELL!?” Yang shouted, jumping from her bed, flailing in her bedsheets, and landing ass up on the floor. Blake had a slightly calmer reaction where she launched herself straight up and latched onto the ceiling. Weiss, on the other hand, slept like the dead, making the male of the team slide over and poke her to see if she was cold.  
  
“Ruby I swear, I bought you the whistle in case of… an emergency, you’re making me seriously consider throwing it away!” Yang was less than pleased if her red eyes were anything to go by.  
  
“Well, we didn’t have another way to wake you guys up an- hold up a moment. WEISS, WEISS WAKE THE HECK UP LAZY BONES!” Weiss was just beginning to wake when Ruby slid up next to her whistle in hand and let out another screech. Weiss screamed, lurched out of bed, and landed square on her backside.  
  
“What the?” Weiss didn’t yell like Yang, but she was clearly irritated. She was not ready for what her eyes beheld, a smiling Ruby, a pissed red eyed Yang attempting to launch a silver object into orbit, and the giant alien from yesterday trying to coax Blake into detaching from the ceiling. Weiss checked the clock and her irritation spike so much more. “What possessed you to wake us up at this ungodly hour Ruby?!”  
  
“Well I woke up at five, as I always do,” Yang facepalmed at this, “Durge was already up, so we went to get some breakfast and watch a movie. Then we tried to decide what to do next and he had the amazing idea of waking you all up so we could get started.” When she finished, she failed to notice that the three girls had all turned glares on Durge, and no one saw the small fear sweat he developed.  
  
“Well you see I’d said that we uh, could start getting ready and unpack, get our classes organized and, um, possibly get to know each other better…?” He stuttered out.  
  
Blake hopped down from her place among the lights and spoke, “Well he does have a point, we don’t know when classes begin so it’d be best to start getting ready now.”  
  
“Will we have time to do all that stuff?” Yang asked.  
v “I hear advanced huntsman academies tend to start later than the other schools.” Weiss explained.  
  
“So, it’s settled.” Ruby said as the remaining three started for the door with their assortment of morning essentials.  
  
“We’ll have to determine a showering order for when the new bathroom gets installed.” Durge said as the door closed.  
  
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” The small girl replied.  
  
At nearly seven the three girls walked back into the room, washed and dressed in their uniforms. “Then I suppose the next thing on the agenda is the unpacking. Banzai!” Ruby shouted throwing her fist in the air, Blake and Yang echoing and mirroring after her while Weiss and Durge merely cocked a brow and looked at each other, then back at the three strange girls.  
  
When the four who actually had things to unpack started, Durge only shrugged and said, “Que the montage,” before joining in as help where needed. First was helping Yang with her poster, then Weiss with her picture, he attempted to help Blake with her books, only to get shot down with a look, finally he had to prevent Ruby from bisecting the curtains with her scythe.  
  
“This isn’t going to work” Weiss said as the team surveyed their handiwork, the stuff worked out great, but the beds were all stacked up in the center and were unusable.  
  
“We could get rid of some of our stuff.” Yang pointed out. Ruby was about ready to propose an alternative idea, but a knock at the door cut her off.  
  
“What’s up Ozpin?” Durge said as he opened the door.  
  
“How did you know it was me?” Ozpin asked a miniscule amount of shock entering his voice.  
  
“Bum-bump bum-bump.” Durge hinted.  
  
“Oh, yes the whole heart beat thing, right. Do you mind if I come in?” The professor asked.  
  
“Not at all.” Durge said stepping out of the way, letting Ozpin enter.  
  
“Yes, well, I just came by to… Oh my. What happened here?” He questioned staring at the pile of beds.  
  
“Can’t you tell? The girls are moving in.” Durge supplied with no small amount of mirth in his voice.  
  
“I see, and just what are you all going to do about the bedding situation?” Ozpin wondered.  
  
“We were going to turn the beds into bunkbeds.” Ruby said.  
  
Wiess looked slightly displeased with the answer. “What!? No we- mmmf!” She could not finish her sentence due, in part, to Yang’s hands covering her mouth.  
  
“How’s about I procure some actual bunkbeds instead, so you don’t risk hurting yourselves?” Ozpin had already made up his mind on the matter, so he continued speaking. “As for your fifth member, where shall we have his bed?” he glanced around the room, trying to find a viable area for the newest bed.  
  
“We could toss some of our stuff to make room.” Blake offered.  
  
“Hmm a good idea, but I think I may have a better one.” Oz said eyeing a bookcase to the right of the door. “Do me a favor and move a bed to that corner.” He said pointing to a corner at the back right., Blake and Yang were quick to jump to work, “Now, Weiss, help me move this bookcase so that it touches the bed and stands against the right wall there,” they moved the bookcase to the foot of the bed, “then move another bed to where the case used to be.” Durge and Ruby did as they were told. “Perfect.” The first bed was moved to where they were going to move Blake’s, at the foot of the bed the bookcase started and at the other end was the foot of the second bed. “We’ll put Durge’s bed next to the door and one of the bunkbeds in that corner, just don’t slam the door open when walking into the room and you should be fine.” Ozpin said starting out of the room, “That was all I came here for, good day.” And he left.  
  
“… Well that was a thing.” Yang said staring after the headmaster.  
  
“Well then next on our agenda isssssss classes.” Ruby finished dejectedly. “First class is at nine,” causing all to turn to the clock that read ten past eight. “Looks like we all have professor Port’s ‘Grimm Studies’ class. Then we all have a combat class with Goodwitch, the class load’s gonna be light for the first week or so, so the teachers can finish up any last-minute preparations.”  
  
“So that’s everything?” Weiss asked.  
  
“Seems so.” Ruby answered.  
  
“What’re we gonna do now?” Yang asked “We have nearly an hour before classes start.”  
  
“Well I did suggest we do the whole ‘talk about ourselves’ thing.”  
  
“Right, so who wants to go first?” Weiss asked the group. They all just sat around looking at each other.  
  
“Well I can’t go, my memory ain’t so good.” Durge joked.  
  
“I got something. My name’s Yang Xiao Long, I like partying, friends, my lil’ sis, jokes, and my hair. I hate people who screw with my friends and people who try to harm my hair. That good?”  
  
“Good enough, I guess.” Durge said.  
  
“Blake Belladonna, I like reading and hanging out with friends. I dislike those who hurt innocent people.” There was so much she wanted to add, but with the Schnee heiress there she had to keep it brief, lest she get fingered as an assassin.  
  
“I’m Ruby Rose. I like cookies and strawberries, my sister Yang, my friends, training, Crescent Rose, huntsmen, reading, weapons, killing Grimm, and animals. I hate bullies, and Grimm.”  
  
“I am Weiss Schnee, I like blueberry ice-cream, my friends, and my family. I hate the White Fang and their cohorts, and that’s about it.” Weiss turned to Durge and asked, “I don’t suppose you remember anything from your past?”  
  
Underneath his helmet Durge developed a contemplative frown, for several reasons, most prevalent was that he was trying _real_ hard to remember something useful. “Durge. I like… hmmmm…” he thought long and hard but eventually he got it, it wasn’t much but he had something, a simple memory of him tracking something. “Ah, I like hunting, and that’s all I know of.”  
  
“Huh, well it’s better than what you knew of yourself than a few minutes ago.” Yang said, ever the optimist.  
  
“Yeah, you’re right.” Durge said his voice betrayed his feelings, he was still depressed, worried, and curious about all his former life. And now he was afraid of what he’d been hunting, it was obvious from the armor and weapons that he had been dangerous in the past, and he didn’t know if it was in service to the law, or against it.  
  
“We still have a bit of time before class starts, what should we do?” Weiss asked.  
  
“How’s about we see if JNPR’s awake and ready, then head to class.” Ruby started. “You all can play around with your scrolls and I see if I can’t teach our alien friend here how to use his.”  
  
“Have we confirmed that I’m an extraterrestrial yet?” Durge asked “It’s still unknown to me.”  
  
“Dude you’re, like, ten feet tall, record holder tallest man on Remnant was eight even.” Yang said. “Trust me you’re not of this world.” They all started getting up and moving out.  
  
On their way out the door Durge gently grasped Weiss’ arm and pulled her aside, away from the team “Listen I know this may not seem like much coming from me, seeing as we’ve known each other for less than a day, but I know you were lying about the other things you liked.”  
  
“I was not-” Weiss tried to defend herself, but got cut off.  
  
“I guess you weren’t paying attention to me and Oz’s conversation a few minutes ago, I can feel heartbeats up to a huge distance away. When somebodies lying, I know, the only thing you were truthful about liking was the ice-cream. If you ever wanna talk about anything, let me know, I’ll keep it a secret.”  
  
“Why would you go out of your way to help me?” She asked, years of being used by her so-called “friends” and the threats against her life made her a bit distrustful to someone offering to help for seemingly nothing in return.  
  
“We’re a team now, Weiss, like it or not it means we have each other’s backs, through thick, and thin, come hell or high water, on any issue, personal or public. One day we’re gonna call each other ‘family’ ‘cause when the world will try and put us down, we’ll still stand together.”  
  
“Are you remembering something?” She asked, that sounded like something an experienced huntsman would say.  
  
“Bits and pieces, nothing concrete, and very little, hell I won’t even call them memories, just random knowledge.” He said as he stepped out the door.  
  
First stop was JNPR’s room across the hall to wake them up, when they were done with that they headed to the Grimm studies class and just waited. Blake began reading a book and Weiss and Yang started to futz with their scrolls while Ruby showed Durge how to use his.  
  
“I’m gonna have to ask Ozpin so many questions and favors.” He said as the youngest in the room showed him how the camera worked.  
  
“Why do you say that?” Blake asked.  
  
“First I wanna find out how come I don’t got every government in the world breathing down my neck to ‘study,’ then I wanna see if I can get a bigger one of these.” He said tapping the scroll. “I mean come on, look at me compared to this dinky little thing. If I don’t accidentally break this, it’ll be a miracle.”  
  
Yang scoffed “Please, If I don’t break mine, I doubt you will.”  
  
Durge quirked an unseen brow at her “What makes you say that.”  
  
“Let’s just say my semblance grants me super strength.”  
  
“Ooooo nice.” Durge paused for a moment, thinking over something, “Hey I’ve got an idea, wanna arm wrestle? See whose stronger?”  
  
Yang smirked, “Sure, just so you know, I haven’t been beaten at this since I unlocked my semblance.”  
  
“Is that even fair?” Weiss asked.  
  
“It lends a hand in muscle development, I don’t even have to have it activated and I’m already probably the strongest here.” Yang replied. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to make a little wager on this, can I?”  
  
Durge stared at her for a moment before replying, “Hey Yang, this is your brain speaking, I’m just here to remind you that you’re talking to an amnesiac xenomorph, who is only here because the headmaster is, presumably, covering his tuition fees.”  
  
“Thank God I’m not the only one making that mistake.” Ruby said.  
  
“Seems you haven’t lost any sarcasm when you lost your memories.” Yang said. “Whelp, guess I’m not earning any money of this one.”  
  
Blake quirked a brow, “This one?”  
  
“Hey, when you’re good at something, never do it for free.” Yang said.  
  
“I’m tempted to spot Durge if he loses.” Weiss said.  
  
Yang turned and offered her hand to Weiss, with the smile of a devil who just struck a damn good deal. “Hundred?”  
  
Weiss grasped the offered hand, “Deal.”  
  
Yang’s smile grew wider, “And with that I’m a hundred Lien richer.”  
  
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Yang.” Blake said eyes still glued to the pages of her novel.  
  
Ruby just sighed, “No, she’s right.”  
  
“Mind spotting us Blake?” Durge asked.  
  
“… What the heck, sure.” She replied, marking her page, and set the book down. “Okay, you ready?” Both contestants nodded as they locked hands. “On my mark. Three, two, one, MARK!” Yang immediately applied full force to her hand trying to take him down as quickly as possible, her opponent yawned mockingly and applied equal force, neither hand moved.  
  
“What in the world!?” Ruby shouted, she’d never seen anyone match Yang perfectly, there’d been a few close ones but never someone who actually challenged her sister in strength, much less have a chance of winning. But after fifteen seconds Durge made the motion of cracking his neck, though no sound emitted, and slammed her hand down on the table.  
  
“No puppy flipping way!” Ruby exclaimed.  
  
The contest winner just looked at her, “Puppy flipping?”  
  
Ruby did an interesting combination of blushing, pouting, and glaring at Durge, “You just beat Yang! At arm wrestling!”  
  
“Thanks for the recap, Ruby.” Durge said, not seeing what the big deal was.  
  
“No! you don’t understand! That doesn’t happen! Nobody’s ever beaten her, ever!”  
  
“Well Now you can change that ‘nobody’ to ‘one person.’”  
  
“And here,” Weiss said, handing Durge two one-hundred Lien cards, “Is what you earned from the bet.”  
  
“No, no, no, these are your winnings, you made the bet, not me.” Durge said attempting to give Weiss the cards back.  
  
“Consider it a gift since you don’t have any.” Weiss said closing his fingers around the cards, making him accept them.  
  
“…Thank you.” He said.  
  
“Yang?” Blake began, “Are you okay? You’re being awfully quiet.”  
  
“That. Was. Awesome!” Yang shouted, jumping onto Durge’s chest, grabbing the sides of his helmet, and looking into its eyeholes. “How did you do that!? What kind of workout program do you follow!? What kind of foods do you eat!?” She asked in rapid fire succession. Blake instinctually began humming the ‘Jeopardy’ theme until Yang got it. “Shit! You don’t remember do you?” Durge shook his head.  
  
And this was the scene Professor Peter Port walked in on, one of his students, standing on his other “foreign exchange student” whilst sulking with her teammates laughing at her. “Well this is going to be an interesting year.” He mused out loud.  
  



End file.
